It’s official: Saoirse Ronan, Anna Sawai, Amy Lou Wood and Mia McKenna-Bruce have joined the cast of The Beatles – A Four Movie Movie Event, playing Linda McCartney, Yoko Ono, Patti Boyd and Maureen Starkey, respectively, who married one of the members of the Fab Four at the height of the band’s fame and success in the 1960s.
Variety previously confirmed that the actors were set to star in director Sam Mendes’ ambitious project, but this week all deals are up and Sony Pictures has officially announced the cast.
“Maureen, Linda, Yoko and Patti are all fascinating and unique individuals,” Mendes said in a statement. “I’m thrilled that we were able to convince four of the most talented women working in film today to join us on this incredible adventure.”
Each of the four films tells the story of the Beatles’ rise from obscurity in Liverpool in the early 1960s to becoming one of the world’s biggest bands before disbanding in 1970, through the eyes of one of the Beatles, John Lennon (Harris Dickenson), Paul McCartney (Paul Mescal), George Harrison (Joseph Quinn), and Ringo Starr (Barry Keoghan). This is the first time the band and its descendants will provide music. Lifetime rights to a theatrical feature film about them.
Linda (née Eastman) met McCartney in 1967 while working as a photographer. They married in 1969. After the Beatles disbanded, she became a member of McCartney’s band Wings. The two lived together until she died of breast cancer in 1998.
Ono and Lennon first met in 1966 when they viewed Lennon’s conceptual art at a London gallery. Lennon was still married to Cynthia Powell at the time (the role was not yet decided), but they divorced in 1968, and Lennon and Ono married the following year.
Ms. Boyd met Ms. Harrison while working as a model on the set of the 1964 Beatles film “A Hard Day’s Night.” The two married in 1966 but divorced in 1977. (She was then married to Eric Clapton from 1979 to 1989.) In an Oct. 10 post on X (which has since been deleted), Ms. Boyd said she “looked forward to (hoping) to meet ‘Wood’ at some point in the future.”
Starkey (née Cox) began dating Starr (whose real name was Richard Starkey) in 1962. At the time, she was 16 years old and working as a hairdresser. They married in 1965 and had three children. They divorced in 1975. She died of leukemia in 1994.
Ronan, a four-time Oscar nominee, will next be seen in the dark comedy Bad Apples. Sawai recently won an Emmy Award for his performance in the FX series “Shogun,” and will next be seen in season 2 of the Apple TV series “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.” Wood first rose to fame in the Netflix series “Sex Education” and was nominated for an Emmy this year for her performance in Season 3 of HBO’s “The White Lotus.” And McKenna-Bruce won a BAFTA Rising Star Award and a British Independent Film Award for her breakout role in 2023’s How to Have Sex. She will star opposite Natalie Dormer in the British miniseries The Lady.
Ronan is represented by CAA. Mr. Sawai is represented by WME (42) and United Agent Chris Abramson. Mr. Wood is repped by CAA, Independent, Sloan, Offer, Weber and Dern. McKenna-Bruce is represented by UTA (42), Ruber Rochlin and Jackoway Austin.
